Miscellaneous: articles

Aussie dramas dumped

WITH lacklustre ratings figures for the four new Australian dramas—Young Lions, MDA, Marshall Law and White Collar Blue—causing heartache at the networks and in the independent production industry, speculation now is how many will still be on air by the end of the year.

Southern Star Group chairman Neil Balnaves reckons "two of the four should be able to survive".

To put it another way, two won't. Naturally he hopes Southern Star's series Young Lions will be one of the survivors.

Balnaves, speaking after SS's annual general meeting Wednesday at Sydney's Sheraton-on-the-Park, believes the problem is not the shows themselves but that they were launched in the second half of the year when audiences had settled into viewing patterns.